


Fading Sunshine AU

by witchbreaker



Series: Dreaming of Roads Unwalked Snippets [1]
Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 02:13:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9577634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchbreaker/pseuds/witchbreaker
Summary: Shikako's chakra hypersensitivity is killing her and the Lucky Sevens are all out of miracles.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, so Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen has a pretty vibrant fandom and I've been writing AUs for it in the forum for years. I've decided to start posting the AUs to my AO3 account so that I can get them all in one place and update whenever I feel like it without disturbing the flow of the threads.
> 
> This AU is called the Fading Sunshine AU. You can find the beginning of it in the We're All Just Dreaming of Sunshine forum, Recursive Thread, post #1767 aka page 59. There are other authors who have written in it to so please check out the thread if you want to see more.

At first Shikako doesn't know what is going on. When the medic nin, explains what is happening in her to her chakra coils her stomach drops to her knees. She always knew that she was running out of time but she didn't think the universe itself was going to step in to correct its mistake.

*

She's not allowed to leave the hospital anymore. Can't if she wanted too. Her lungs stutter and seize too often to get a good breath in. The worst thing about it isn't the pain, it's watching her family slowly fall apart as they can do nothing to help her. Shikamaru's breaking at the edges. Her illness might as well be attacking him too.

*

Shikako keeps writing. Some of it is seals. Things she thought she could tackle latter but Madara won't stop with her death. She carefully works out theories about how to stop him, Akatsuki, Kabuto. Her body maybe falling apart but her mind is still sharp. It's all triple encoded but her family could figure it out. In case that fails, she gives Sakura the key. Makes her repeat it three times as she hacks up a lung in the attempt to get air. Sakura promises to remember it as she flies out the door to get Tsunade.

*

"It's going to be okay." She tells her mom. She has repeated the words over and over but no one seems to be listening. Even now, her mother looks at her with watery eyes. Like everything will come down around her once Shikako passes on. It won't be that bad. Shikako believes that her loved ones will move on. That eventually the hole where she was will be filled in. She wasn't suppose to be here in the first place so her leaving won't be that terrible.

*

Shikako goes into cardiac arrest when she learns that Sasuke has left the village. No, no, no. This can't be happening. She _beat_ this. She _saved_ him from Orochimaru. How could he go after him? How could Sasuke leave? The medics have to put her under to keep her alive. When she wakes up she feels completely defeated. Was it all for nothing then? Was fate going to make things play out as they had? Was every ripple she caused, every stone she upturned, going to be realigned?

Shikako laid in bed, starring at the wall. All her energy has gone out of her. Even writing in her notebook to prepare people for the future seems useless. The universe is going to sweep her life away as though it is dust on the kitchen floor and there's nothing she can do about it.

*

The end is coming. Shikako can feel it as her body stops listening to her commands. She can't walk anymore, can't form chakra, can barely lift her head off the pillow. She wants to just roll over and let it take her away. But...but there's one last thing she wants to do.

"Can you," She rasps out to her brother. "Write a letter for me?"

Shika swallows. "Sure."

She tells him exactly what to put down. Naruto won't be back for another year but she doesn't want him to get the news then. Doesn't want him to walk through the gates of Konoha and have it ruined by the reveal. She hopes that her words will ease him through the grief. Belatedly, she has Shika transcribe one to Sasuke as well. This one is filled with rebukes and she may or may not have called him an idiot, five times. In it, she makes him promise to come home. To get ramen with Naruto and have dinner with her family after missions. To train with Team 7 and bug Kakashi. To remember that they will always be friends.

They have to stop a few times as her coughing gets too bad to speak but the letters get finished. Shika quietly takes them to get sealed. Shikako's left alone in her room. Almost.

"Kakashi-sensei, please come in." The presence that she has been feeling at the edge of her sense hesitates. "I don't want to be alone right now."

Kakashi flickers into the room. At first he's standing at the far wall, not look at her. Shikako tries to sit up, to raise a hand. She can't do it. Her body is too weak at this point. Kakashi comes to her side and helps her sit up straight. He wraps one hand around her's and doesn't let go.

"I'm-" She coughs. It's weak this time as though her lungs can't even make the effort to properly breath. "I'm glad you were my sensei."

Kakashi stiffens. Had Shikako told him this before? She didn't think so. Doesn't want it to go unsaid.

"Really. I wouldn't have traded Team 7 for-" more coughing. "for the world."

His grip on her hand tightens to the point of pain. She leans into his shoulder.

"It's going to be okay." Her muffled words are barely audible. "It's going to be okay. We'll meet again and it will be better."

"It don't want to met later." Kakashi says, quietly. "One late Lucky Seven is more than enough."

Shikako laughs at the joke as poor as it is. She's tired. So tired. She wishes for the days when simple movements didn't drain her like this. She closes her eyes.

"It's going to be okay." She repeats. Kakashi moves her back into a horizontal position as Shikako drifts off.

She never wakes back up.


	2. Chapter 2

Shikamaru took it the worst. He spiraled out of control and probably would have caused Konoha to exploded if Ino and Choji hadn't sat on him long enough for the rage and hurt to simmer down into gut wrenching grief. It hurts. Everything hurts. Why did this happen to his sister? _How?_ He has no answers. The best reason anyone could give him is that Shikako's hypersensitive combined with the high level techniques she was practicing caused her system to shut down. It smells like crap and Shikamaru doesn't believe it.

Except for the times he does and rails against his father for not stopping her. For letting Shikako push herself too far.

"If you had done what you were suppose to she wouldn't be DEAD!" He yells. Dad has no responds to that. If Shikamaru cared he would see the pain his father is going through. That Shikaku is grieving just as much as he is. Is considering that this _is_ his fault. Shikamaru doesn't care so he is blind. Inochi drags Shikamaru away to keep everything from escalating into an actual fight.

*

Shikamaru is a mess. An angry Nara with no one to turn his rage on. He slashes out at everything and nothing. It would have gone on for longer except Sakura corners him one day.

"I think Shikako knew exactly what was wrong." Her words stop Shikamaru in his tracks. He focuses all his attention on her. Sakura swallows.

"What?"

"Well, I was there when Tsunade-sama explained what was going on," Of course she was, Shikamaru had been forced to wait in the hall but Tsunade brought her apprentice inside. "Shikako didn't seem surprised. Shocked and frightened but...it somehow made sense to her. I could see it in her eyes."

Shikamaru scrambles for words. If this is true, then his sister....his sister had let everyone stumble in the dark for answers when she had them all along.

"There's something else." Sakura continues. "Before she died, Shikako made me promise to remember something. I think it's a key to the code but I can't find the code."

"Tell me."

"A spiral is the strongest, a flower for your name, a daisy in the sun will bring us both to shame."

That doesn't make any sense to Shikamaru but it will. Because he knows exactly where Shikako would have hidden a code. He dashes off to home without even a word of thanks to Sakura. Shikako's notebooks haven't been touched since her death. Neither has her room.

*

It takes four hours to find every single hide-hole that Shikako had in her room. There is no one else in the house so Shikamaru doesn't worry about being quiet. It takes some work to free things from the seals but he manages it. The first thing he finds is the Book of Gelel which makes him wonder if Sakura was right.

He puts it down in favor of the nineteen notebooks his sister has accumulated over the years. A third are not encrypted at all and he ignores those. He chooses the closest at hand and starts decoding. Even with the key it takes a while to figure out exactly what his sister meant. When the first page is done he freezes.

**Hidan:**

**Partner with Kakuzu**

**Immortal via Jashin ritual (see notes on Jashin)**

**Weapons: Triple-bladed Scythe**

**Can't be killed via decapitation, blood loss, removing limbs. Live burial probably worked but how long did it take? Fire? Sealing?**

**Was a part of Akatsuki before Time Skip but when? Second newest member after Tobi.**

**Foul mouthed, fervent believer in Jashin, loves killing. No respect for anyone but his god.**

Shikamaru stares at the page. When? _How?_ He knew that his sister was trying to dig up information on Akatsuki, they all were, but this...she should have not been able to get her hands on this. He starts decoding the rest. By the time he's half way, he has a what appears to be the full roster of Akatsuki, the long dead Madara Uchiha (except Shikako writes like he's _not,_ ) Danzo Shimura (whom Shikamaru is beginning to suspect murdered his sister because the amount of info she has on _him_ would make her a giant freaking target,) and a weird timeline that makes little sense except it does if you take Shikako out of the equation.

Shikamaru is purposefully not thinking about what all this means. He isn't. He won't. His sister isn't a spy. She's not.

He picks up the next notebook and stops once he's decoded the first sentence.

_I really hope my family finds this,_

_If it is you. I'm sorry. I guess I didn't have as much time as I thought I did. I wasn't really expecting the universe to fix its mistake before I died. But that's unimportant. What you need to know is that things are going to happen soon. Pain is coming, so is Madara, and the whole world is in danger. We've got one year and two months before everything starts to happen so you need to prepare now. I've outlined their plans as best I know in this notebook, info on the people themselves are in the others, and I think I've gotten most of the sealing theory worked out in order to stop Madara's greatest techniques._

_I know you're wondering how I got this and the best explanation I can give you is that on the day I was born I got a vision of the future. Of the past too. They all came together to tell a great and scary story. I've tried my best change the world so that that 'story' doesn't come true but there is still so much to do. Please use this knowledge to win. Please survive._

_I'll see you again some day,_

_Shikako Nara._

Shikamaru puts the book down. He hiccups as tears slide down his face. For a moment it felt like Shikako was right here next to him. He brushes the tears away and continues his work.

*

Shikamaru shows his dad the notebooks. Shikaku has the same reaction that he did and then goes quietly to the Hokage. This isn't something that can be kept within the family.

Shikamaru shows the transcribed letter to his mother and they both talk about what Shikako could have possibly meant by "the universe is fixing it's mistake." Neither have a satisfactory answer. They both sit in muted silence. Shikamaru eventually gets up, gives his mother a brief hug, before leaving. He has a mission now and somewhere to point his rage.

If his mother sees her eldest child go out the door and feels like she's already lost him too, he doesn't care.

If his friends try to moderate his training out of fear that he's pushing too hard, too fast, he doesn't care.

When he pours all his effort in defeating Akatsuki and Orochimaru no one is surprised.

When he helps track down Sasuke to give him Shikako's letter, nobody is surprised.

If they don't know that he's copied all of his sister's notes on Edo Tensei or that his meeting with Sasuke includes the not-yet-master of the technique Kabuto. That's for the best.

**Author's Note:**

> This is not a running story and will most likely not be updated. Feel free to ask for explanation or drop me a prompt for this. I might get to it.


End file.
